#bonding via carrier pigeon

[saint--claire]

Tagged by @blackidyll - thank you! (◕‿◕✿)*:･ﾟ✧ I had fun with this, this was a good one.

10 Films I Love: (not in order, because jesus, I can’t pick that)

1. The Little Mermaid.  Little me was obsessed with it, adult me still loves it, and all versions of me can still sing it (badly). 

2. Top Gun Maverick - MY BELOVEDS.  Something that (for me) the sequel was even better than the original.  TGM was such a brilliant sandpit to fic writers that I got back from my 2.5yr year writing slump, and got to get back the joy of that as a hobby.  Watched the ending in awe, having completely lost track of time in the cinema and with no idea about whether they were going to kill of Tom Cruise in a blaze of glory.  (For the record I am glad they did not).

3. Now You See Me - the ending to this day delights me.  I caught the movie by accident right at the start cooking dinner at uni one night, with the movie on the communal TV. 

4. The Old Guard - undying found family.  Beautiful dynamics between everybody.  Sweet romance.  Insane anti-hero who you know is going to stir some shit up.  Very hot woman swinging deadly weapons around.  Also love that.

5. Howl’s Moving Castle - Restful.  Old Sophie has the attitude on life that I want.  This movie is calm-down-and-drop-off-to-sleep - everything’s safe watching.

6. Glass Onion - A Knives Out Movie.  Just delightful.  The main thing I enjoy about this movie (apart from all of it) is how very obviously each actor is having the time of their lives.  They all look like they are having fun.  I also suck at murder mysteries and the endings are complete surprises to me every time, which is great fun.

7. Fast & Furious - I saw the trailer for FX yesterday and I am WILDLY excited.  It looks absolutely batshit insane and I nearly cried when Paul Walker came on. Another movie where the actors are all having the time of their lives.  Fast cars go zoom, cool stunts, great actors, a movie that understands exactly how far outside the bounds of reality and physics it is and still doesn’t give a shit.  Inspirational.

8. Pirates of the Caribbean - Boats!  Swords!  More cool stunts and pretty people!  Everything about the series.  I was about to say my favourite was the third, but then I remember the fountain of youth and curse of the black pearl and couldn’t commit.  Still absolutely obsessed with the King of the Brethren Court, and her hat.

9. Skyfall - I’m with blackidyll here, this was the best.  We were given so much - Q, James & Q, everything that happened with Skyfall manor, and James and M.  I will say Eva Green as Vespa remains my second favourite Bond Girl, as the first, clearly, is Q.

10. The Martian - Maybe I was lying when I said I couldn’t pick a favourite movie.  I adore this movie.  I watched it for the first time with my Dad, not having read the book, and then twenty minutes after it finished I found and read the book and loved that even more.  The love, emotions, desperation, and humanity gets me every time.  “Houston, 6 crew safely aboard”.

I am going to tag @milestaller @luddycris @glitterisblue - if you have the time and spoons xx.  Anyone else following me - also feel free to complete!

#saintclaire speaks #shout out to Malificent which nearly ended up on the list because I can't count #for aesthetic reasons #I would like to do a netflix party with people #we can do a rewatch #bonding via carrier pigeon

[thekrows-nest]

Just a thought I had based on all the asks involving Dove owning birds. (Also I hope you've been having a nice day :>)

If Dove was someone who raised birds, would Krow let Dove train their birds, or like, a single bird, to carry messages to his place.

Like a romantic little carrier pigeon bringing him love notes that Dove writes for him when they're too swamped with work or other duties to come see him in person? or just to be cheesy and sappy when it feels right

Also depositing the idea that, if he was okay with it, the bird just immediately being really fond of Krow because I know birds can form bonds with humans they like, and cuz i can absolutely see the carrier bird, especially if it's a corvid, just spotting some shiny little bits and bobs while delivering Dove's note to Krow, and making a habit of grabbing the shiny things to give to Krow with the note.

This is such a cute lil ask d'awww.

So. It's a little tricky.

On one hand, Krow would think this absolutely adorable, and the idea of sending message to Dove back and forth via carrier pigeon or something would fill his bird loving heart with glee.

However, on the other, there are... various reasons he does not tell Dove or even give a hint to where he lives. And even having a bird to carry messages to him to drop off would require the bird to know where he is and thus... Dove knowing.

Most likely, Krow would compromise in having the bird drop off letters at his job's office. (He's sure Luke would be cool with it.)

Krow would be super happy if the bird also forms an attachment to him, and be quite honored to receive bits and baubles from it (doesn't matter if it's just gum wrappers and paper clips, he will keep that shit proudly). He would make sure to give the bird good food too. Very nice seeds, peas, greens and the like.

#krow asked and answered #the krow's nest #winndy talks

[zestials]

pre - established relationship meme / accepting.

send a ♡ and i’ll fill this out for our muses !  i’ll bold what i want for their relationship, italic what i could see and strike out what i don’t .

@cttncndi sent ── ♡ !!

FRIENDS.   childhood friends  /  work friends  /  family friends  /  recently friends  /  turning antagonistic  /  turning into something romantic  /  stable  /  falling apart  /  friendship of need  /  friendship of circumstance  pen - pals or internet friends  /  coworkers  /  partners  /  other .

ROMANCE.   childhood sweethearts  /  newly entered  /  soulmates  /  skinny love  /  unrequited from my muses side  /  unrequited from your muses side  /  friends with benefits  /  awkward  /  fading  /  turning  toxic  /  toxic  and  destructive  /  other / subscribed to her onlyfangs via carrier pigeon / might give him a heart attack

FAMILIAL BOND.   sibling bond  /  older sibling figure to your muse  /  younger sibling figure to your muse  /  parental figure to your muse  /  parental figure to your muse  /  guardian figure  /  legal  guardian  /  other .

ENEMIES.   dangerous to themselves  /  dangerous to others  /  unpredictable  /  passionate  /  rivals  /  petty  /  developing into a sexual tension  /  developing into a romantic tension  /  based off family matters  /  based of circumstance  /  based of professional matters  /  based of misunderstandings or lies  /  other .

#cttncndi #you made it in as the last one im doin for the nIGHT #i had the carrier pigeon onlyfangs joke locked & loaded #hear ye hear ye being friends w her is so funny 2 me .. #same vibes as angel #the meme of seeing ankles and fainting #* ── dealing in your secrets. : inbox.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

FINALLY FINISHED NARUTO AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Honestly, and this might sound harsh, but I think I give the series overall a 6/10. Being generous, I’d say it’s maybe a 7/10, but I’m deducting one point because I’m almost positive the only reason I’d rate it that high is because despite all it’s flaws, after watching 720 episodes across two series and 10 movies, you’re just going to be attached to the characters and show regardless of how you feel about it.

I know it’s super popular, or was anyways, and I can absolutely see why, but there were just too many issues that bothered me personally. It’s frustrating because I want to like it, I really do. There’s so many elements at work here that are so just perfectly me that it’s almost weird that I don’t like it, but I don’t. Obviously I liked it enough to spend hours upon hours watching it, but I think I just kept expecting it to get better at some point, and that point never happened.

More about my issues with it below...

I don’t know how to frame this (I never do) so it’s mostly just off the cuff.

I’ll start with the easily dismissible criticisms, the movies. Obviously all but one of the movies are non-canon (and I’ll get to the canon one shortly...), and they’re made by other studios so it’s not entirely fair to criticize the series based on them. I’m far too used to this weird format from Pokemon and their non-canon movies, so it wasn’t a huge deal to me. I will say that, much like the Pokemon films, almost all of the Naruto films followed the same exact format: Naruto goes to a location we’ve never heard of before and will never hear of again and is forced to protect someone abrasive and annoying until the enemy is defeated and they become BFFs that we’ll never see or hear from again.

I’d say, in order from best to worst:

Road to Ninja - Naruto the Movie

Naruto the Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie - Bonds

Naruto Shippuden: The Lost Tower

Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow

Naruto Shippuden: The Movie

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom

Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Blood Prison

The Last: Naruto the Movie

Yes, you read that right. The one canonical movie I put in dead last. Originally I thought that position was reserved for Blood Prison, which offended me because of just how utterly contrived the plot was and how out of character everyone needed to act to get it moving. But somehow, The Last took last place because of just how bad of a movie it was that for some reason has the audacity to be canon. And look, I know why it’s canon. It’s where Naruto and Hinata ‘officially’ get together and it ‘explains’ some missing plot elements from the series (more on that...), so of course it’s canon.

But come the fuck on, the last movie in the franchise, the one canonical movie, the one that may or may not take place after the Great Shinobi War, I.E. the big final battle of the series, has Naruto going into the fucking hollow earth through a cave portal that takes him to the moon, which is falling because the man on the moon is an incel and hates earth? What kind of methamphetamines were the writers on for that one. The Hinata and Naruto bits were fine, but holy fuck was that plot bad. They may as well have put Naruto in a spaceship and sent him to Mars to fight Martian Shinobi, I mean if we’ve already crossed the line, why not run a marathon beyond it.

The movie was meant to explain away a one-off line made in the series, that admittedly I did sit and ponder whether or not they’d ever explain it, about the Sage of Six Path’s brother, Homura, who went to go live on the moon after they defeated their mother Kaguya. It was mentioned so briefly and only once that I thought for sure it wasn’t ever going to be brought up again. I also wondered where Byakugan came from since we’d gotten an explanation for Sharingan and Rennigan during the series, but never for Byakugan. I actually don’t mind the explanation that it came from Homura’s bloodline, I think that tracks well enough. The man on the moon bit was...odd, but when I thought of how strong Homura was, I didn’t think much of it. I actually thought he somehow was going to still be alive and he’d come down to earth after they defeated Kaguya, but that never happened.

Here’s the rub though, and one of my issues with the series as a whole, which is that the show seemed to keep writing itself into these weird corners where they’d be forced to do something completely nonsensical, purely because they were the ones who wrote them into those corners. It would’ve been simpler to just say all visual jutsu was derived from Kaguya’s power, or the Homura died so there’s no man on the moon, or that Tsunade died so Kekashi needs to become Hokage, etc. They didn’t have to write themselves into these scenarios, but they did anyway and the end result was them having to write complete and utter nonsense to rationalize why they did it in the first place.

Kekashi becoming Hokage doesn’t really make any sense, like at all. They literally bisected Tsunade during the war but willed her back to life when they could’ve just as easily killed her then and there since she’s largely irrelevant to the rest of the series after the war, and then it would’ve made more sense why Kekashi, the man who on numerous occasions said he didn’t want to be Hokage, would then be forced to become Hokage as he’d be the next strongest (eligible) shinobi after Tsunade. I feel like it was all meant to be a payoff to Obito’s dying words to Kekashi which told him to become Hokage, which even then I found myself asking why the fuck would he say that? Kekashi almost was Hokage once before and was so relieved when Tsunade woke up from her coma so he wouldn’t have to.

Also can we talk about how bad that final episode was? I mean don’t get me wrong, it was cutesy as fuck and actually brought a tear to my eye (when Naruto asked Iruka to be his dad I fucking lost it, I won’t lie), but they cut it off before the wedding? Before the aftermath? Before he becomes Hokage? Like I understand Boruto exists, but I don’t feel like that’s a justifiable excuse for ending your long-running series on merely the assumption that he’ll become Hokage in the future. Maybe if the show was a whole 500 episodes shorter I’d be comfortable with it ending on a vague, yet hopeful ending, but when I’ve spent fuck knows how many hours on this series you bet your ass I’m expecting some mother fucking payoff.

Also do not even get me started on Sasuke. What. The. Fuck?!?!? My guy literally just sends a note via carrier pigeon to the wedding? That’s it? Did I just fucking hallucinate the last 720 episodes or wasn’t Sasuke supposed to be like the second main character??? The absolute absurdity.

This isn’t even much of a comparison because it’s so much shorter than Naruto, but it’s all I got in the moment, but imagine if at the end of Return of the Jedi, Han Solo just decides to fucking dip. He’s just not there. He and Chewie hopped into the Millennium Falcon the moment the Death Star was destroyed and just dipped. No longer in the movie, just gone. Didn’t say anything to Luke or Leia, just up and left. That would be insane.

It’s even more offensive knowing him and Sakura end of together. My. Fucking. Gods. This has been the relationship I’d been dreading since the start when it became abundantly clear they weren’t doing even the barest minimum to actually establish a relationship between them. As it is, when I watched The Last, I thought to myself: “Well, Naruto and Hinata’s relationship hasn’t been the most well-developed relationship I’ve seen, but it’s still leagues better than whatever hatchet job they’re going to pull to convince me Sasuke and Sakura end up together”. We didn’t even get the hatchet job. That’s just how little of a shit they gave. They did not even bother pretending to give any explanation as to how I’m supposed to believe they end up together. I’m quite literally just supposed to believe it because I know it will happen. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, it’s just something that is and therefor I must accept it. Absolutely ridiculous. As it stands, the show gave us more reasons why Sakura and Lee should end up together than they did for her and Sasuke. Fuck, I’d even buy Sakura and Inu before I’d buy Sakura and Sasuke.

I could go on, I really could, but it’s late and I’m just looking forward to putting this behind me. At some point, probably not too soon, I will watch Boruto. As it is, my watch schedule is pretty thoroughly booked up for a while. I can’t foresee myself ever watching this again. I know I sound harsh on it, but I wanna reemphasize that I want to like this show. It’s not a show I think is bad period, it’s a good show I think was just done rather poorly. It all felt very off-the-cuff, much like this shitty review. I don’t know what the manga-to-adaptation pipeline looked like when the show was live, but clearly something got fucked up somewhere.  This really feels like the Fullmetal Alchemist to Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I can’t help but want Naruto to get the Brotherhood treatment...if such a treatment even exists.

#random rant #random #anime #personal #review #pls don't scream at me for my bad opinions #I get that this show was obscenely popular #still is to an extent #it was as painful for me to write this as it was for you to read it #I feel so conflicted on this #like I want to say I loved the show #because many many parts of it I did #but so many more parts just completely failed for me

[borderlandscast]

his dark materials au

all these aus are going to crossover at multiple points, since it’s inevitable and i like creatively torturing myself. here is a basic cast list and notes. discworld au will be placed into a different post because this one is also epic length.

nilesy, will strife and parvus will get their own post! and discworld peeps too.

any feedback and thoughts on the magic system would be greatly appreciated!

rythian

born in sweden. barely left the country of his birth, except on family holidays or short trips to neighboring locations.

he became an experimental theologian with the intention of studying his heritage and discovering the mystery of why his daemon settled in an unusual form. the official story is that he’s supposed to retrieve or make copies of the althiometer interpretations for sweden’s own universities.

his daemon is called ‘ender’, gender neutral, small dragon the size of a house cat. ender has a lot of raised scales which gives them a thorny devil’s appearance. the scales are smoother than appearances suggest, so concealing ender beneath rythian’s cloak is the usual means by which ender hides.

ender’s species is that of a western dragon. thier features include a pointy head, frill, four legs with talons (thumb ones opposable, albeit sharp), leathery wings and a tail. ender’s eyes have a nictating membrane, and they possess excellent night vision.

ender’s voice has a raspy quality to it, but mirror rythian’s own voice. both have a faint accent when they speak.

ender shares rythian’s taste for information and knowledge. between the two of them, ender hoards the bulk of it. ender has never forgotten a book they or rythian have read.

ravs

born and grew up in scotland. has never been anywhere else, nor interested in doing so.

daemon is ‘finnley’, goes by she/her, a unicorn. finnley is a white ‘horse’ with patches of speckled grey on her body. she blends into mist perfectly. her eyes are a hazelnut colour. finnley’s tail is mostly white; she doesn’t take kindly to people pulling on it.

her hooves are the second most dangerous part of her, her ivory horn being the other. her hooves can crush skulls and stones, and her horn can gore through people.

that said, ravs is the only person who can ride her. she can outrun normal horses. he can ride her with or without a saddle, though ravs prefers the former for obvious reasons. finnley can carry ravs and cargo for about 100 miles (twice that of a regular horse) before tiring. she can go much further at a slower pace.

both left their town of birth due to religious authorities getting wind of him and his daemon’s settled form; the two of them left to protect their family and friends.

both have made a relative’s old highlands castle their secret base. the two earn money from running delivery jobs all over the countryside. given finnley’s speed and ravs’ head and social knack for business, they’ve got quite a reputation built up, and numerous friendships all over the place so both are never in pressing need of a roof, food and drink.

rythian doesn’t know this when they meet, but ravs can separate from finnley at will; both can travel incredibly far from each other if needed, though they prefer not to.

wherever ravs goes, he takes a carrier pigeon with him. the pigeon has been trained to respond to basic commands and questions, including relaying messages back and forth with fellow scotsmen.

a witch taught finnley the trick of how to conceal her horn by using the same trick that witches use to hide themselves from crowds or when infiltrating locations. people simply just don’t notice finnley’s horn. finnley has to concentrate to do this, but ravs’ natural chattiness makes up for her reserved nature.

ravs grew up as a farmer’s child, which explains his lack of complaints when it comes to hard work and rising at the crack of dawn to help out his folks and relatives. he’s used to the ups and downs of the occupation. he’s fairly well built as a result.

y’all be pleased to know that he wears pants in this au, plus his trademark kilt.

teep

british. welsh heritage. voluntarily mute.

daemon is ‘basil’, he/him/they/them, a cockatrice (with some traits from a basilisk mixed in). has a rooster’s head, body, feet, wings and tail; the tail has a functioning serpent’s head. the serpent can hide within the rooster’s voluminous tail.

basil is about the size of a large rooster; he comes up to teep’s waist if that’s any help.

basil’s ability to petrify people is based on vision; it can apply to objects too. basil ‘requires’ a blindfold, but gets by via infrared sensing and a keen sense of smell on their snake head, plus sharing teep’s vision.

basil’s venomous. their leg spurs and snake head produce a potent venom that’s akin to that of a taipan or brown snake. fortunately, basil can only produce so much venom a day. teep harvests the venom from the snake head to dip arrowheads into. the two are initially unwilling to elaborate on an antidote to ravs and rythian.

i said in an earlier post that basil had four legs, but i’m changing my mind and making basil more chicken shaped. basil has two taloned feet, but at the top of their wings is a smaller set of talons. these can be operated like pointy hands. like ender’s, they’re capable of shredding fragile items, like paper. it also lets basil scale objects, mostly trees and fences.

after a noodle incident that left a whole village petrified, teep and basil fled. they returned to keep guard over the village to make sure nobody discovers what happened to it. basil doesn’t feel any remorse whatsoever, and doesn’t think teep should either.

teep has proficiency in archery and maintains their own bow. their family used to be rangers and hunters, but began to dabble in lumberjacking due to rising demand in wood for ships, carpentry, artisan pursits and construction.

teep’s relationship with basil is that of mutual tolerance. they don’t necessarily like or hate each pther, though basil seems to prefer being around teep than be separated, with the addition of basil’s role in speaking for the two of them.

that said, teep dislikes basil’s snarkiness and talkativeness (which is hilarious, considering basil is a reflection and manifestation of teep’s own soul), while basil regards teep’s muteness the ‘silent treatment’, which says a lot.

some notes about zylus and daltos’ world:

separate to that of rythian, ravs and teep’s world, but linked thanks to several secret openings caused by the subtle knife’s bearers.

magic is heavily relient on dust, and the magician’s bond with a daemon.

this world developed like lyra’s world, so electricity/anbaric isn’t as widespread, and a lot of the continents remain to be explored. it’s part fantasy with steampunk thrown in.

cost of magic is concentration; you ever feel like you want to pass out after concentrating too hard? or get a migraine after a giant task? that’s the feeling. the tryhardiest of magicians fall asleep and simply never wake up; the dust expended doesn’t replenish in these comatose individuals to warrant consciousness.

given the presence of magic, religions are much more lax, acknowledging and tolerant of each other. that doesn’t mean that there weren’t wars, it just mean that they’re less on a grander scale of death and destruction since magic is utilized heavily to tamp down on these matters and nip them in the bud. there’s a lot of careful balancing between countries on keeping the peace.

magic is allied with science; science is one of the main drivers in advancing civlisation, while magic serves to fill in the gaps that science leaves (e.g. healing, weather control, binding). magic is treated like a science itself.

there are multiple schools of magic, and many sub classifications and styles. no one way is emphasised (though rival schools try to preach otherwise), or stronger than the others.

the term ‘magician’ is an umbrella term; wizard, witch, sorcerer are perfectly applicable examples of job titles, but regular folks use that first term the most.

anyone can enroll to study magic, and the earlier the better. the highest enrollment tends to occur at when kids enter adolescence, which is when dust begins to increase. there’s always funds set aside for those with incredible potential or from lower social classes to cover schooling, food, travel, study materials and uniforms. it’s in a country’s best interests to produce magicians since not many go on to further their career in a way that benefits a country.

all budding magicians start as theorists, and the majority choose to follow this path in life. they debate, study, experiment and discuss magic, just like they would a science. they can cast magic, but their methods and output differs substantially to that of a practical practioner (get it?). many theorists also have a second occupation, not always magic orientated (such as teaching, gardening, merchant). a few even regard magic as a hobby, dabbling in it on the weekends.

practical practitioners are a jack of all trades. they go out into the world and solve problems that occur as a result of dust, and to a lesser extent, conflicts or human problems. they’re paid a portion of the comissions fee by the requester and a reward upon successful completion. many are freelancers, some work only in one location, and a select few work for the government.

all requests come through via guilds that screen them for issues before making them public. private requests are also possible, including wanting a specific magician but these charge a much higher fee since the magician may not always be available or if another has to transferred in or out.

all magicians undertake a final exam condicted by professors to test their control, theory, aptitude, and specialty (optional, and the magifian can claim multiple ones). this is to root out those unprepared and the undesirables. it can be retaken as many times as needed.

upon passing, the institution acknowledges the magician, and grants them a license. the license isn’t legally needed since unlicensed magic thrives just as well; more caution is required when dealing with said magic. the license also serves as identification since each carries a unique signature from each daemon/human pair.

daemons must be settled by the time of the magician’s graduation. exceptions are rare. certain factions prefer recruiting daemon specific magicians. some say that the final settled form of a daemon determines how advanced one’s magic growth is, but that’s just gossip.

dust is present in this world to a ridiculous degree; if lyra’s world is a lake, this one is an ocean. two basic opinions exist: dust is finite, the other being dust is infinite. either way, there’s evidence to support both, but further studies are needed. and magic is slowly vanishing...

to prevent accidents with daemons (such as in hunting, sports, public events), all daemons must be marked in an obvious, foolproof way. kids tie scraps of colourful cloth or braids to their daemon, explorers equip hats or backpacks, university members use their school’s crest branded on a scarf or tie. there’s a whole world of daemon fashion. people can get very creative.

zylus

dutch scholar. born in the netherlands, has never traveled beyond europe. prefers to stay in one location, dislikes travel unless absolutely necessary. especially hates sea travel.

daemon is ‘griffin’, prefers masculine pronouns but will happily accept female pronouns, brown gyrfalcon. griffin’s height is about arm length. he has a whistling nature to his voice.

part of a noble house that made its fortune when shipping and trade lanes were first established out of the country. his family’s company has existed for a century, and is family run. zylus would rather avoid drawing attention to this fact. his family has low expectations that he’ll run the company, given his natural aptitude for magic, his interests and lack of business ambition.

zylus is a mathematician and a budding physicist. he has a head for numbers, attributed to his upbringing where no child in the house grew up blissfully ignorant of how the company operates. zylus assisted in accounts, making sure all the numbers nearly lines up on all sides. he gained a taste for it, and combined with a curiosity of dust (thanks to the scholars frequenting the store), led to his university career.

zylus entered university in his early teens, and spent the majority of the time immersed in the mathematical side of explaining dust and feeling out his magic. his faculty involves studying the nature of magic through formulas, theorums and laws, depending on the type of magic.

zylus developed a method for quick, precise casting of magic. it involves entering a certain state of mind, and he and griffin are currently stumped as to standardize it. if he’s successful, he might revolutionise the way magic is cast. most magicians cast magic like they’re being filmed: with great, sweeping movements, drama and chants. zylus thinks this is impressive and all, but highly impractical.

he has yet to decide on a specialisation in magic, owing to his occupation and interests. it’s fine to leave a magic specialty blank since all it does is help the guilds match up requests to a magician.

he prefers using precise magic, mostly used to give him a quick, numerical snapshot. it can be tailored depending on the job (like calculations, divinations, calibrations, weighings or measurements). zylus’ toolkit also includes a wider variety of real world magic but he rarely uses those spells. he also knows archival spells to preserve notes and texts, and the manual methods of doing so.

zylus is certified as a practical magician, but chooses not to accept requests except those from his family, faculty or friends. he doesn’t even know who’d request him snice he works in such a niche field to begin with.

griffin is capable of flying at least a hundred metres away from zylus. the nature of this range is a subject of intense debate in the field of daemon focused studies in that large daemons are theorised to have a greater wandering range than that of smaller daemons, and is especially so for bird daemons (those with flight capabilities, anyway).

due to griffin’s talons, zylus has to carry a foldable, wooden perch for his daemon, or have leather pads fastened to one or both shoulders whenever he leaves his home so griffin doesn’t have to park on his head or arm.

griffin’s personality isn’t as aloof as their form suggests; griffin is more talkative than zylus is, and is the more patient and outgoing of the pair. griffin tends to notice smaller details that zylus overlooks. griffin isn’t as serious as zylus is; in fact, their playfulness is akin to that of dallas’, daltos’ daemon. sometimes zylus’ self consciousness spills over, so griffin can be harder to read than usual.

zylus adores griffin, though griffin can be a handful when the both of them are agitated and hold opposing opinions. nonetheless, zylus unconditionally loves his daemon, and vice versa. he does his best to listen and compromise, and he doesn’t shun griffin for long after they’ve both squabbled.

zylus ties a small leather pouch to griffin, and a plain, sandy coloured scarf to mark griffin as a daemon. the pouch can hold letters, small objects, food, and instruments. griffin can open it on their own with their feet and beak.

daltos

american scholar. born in ‘new denmark’, left the country at a young age. the sole reason for that is his talent in magic; schools for magic hadn’t been fully established, and the best option was to send daltos back to europe with his uncle and aunt.

daemon is ‘dallas’, genderfluid, bearded vulture. dallas has no preference for pronouns. their voice is ambigious, albeit with a harsh note to it; daltos prefers masculine pronouns when personally referring to his own daemon.

his early childhood in italy was full of adventures, largely spent by following his aunt and uncle around since both were practical magicians by trade. he picked up a lot of their mannerisms and habits, including their taste for functional, minimal fuss casting and arsenal of spells.

as a result and in his later years, daltos has traveled extensively all over europe; his trips as a small child had a profound effect on his curiosity, and his aunt and uncle did well in cultivating it.

once he hit adolescence, he went to one of italy’s universities, taking the exam. he eventually decided what he wanted to do while attending said university.

daltos studies people and daemons as an anthropologist, focusing on the study of the presence of dust and how it rises and falls with social development, culture and practices.

he keeps meticulous logs about his travels; part of his goal is to track, document and learn about cultures that lack archive entries. his other goal is to chart shifts in dust over time to pool together data for a collective study that his faculty is responsible for. said faculty believes that sentience is key to dust’s existence, and thus, dust is infinite.

he transferred to zylus’ university to access their data, with the stipulation that he help some of the other branches to cover some absences. this is how he and zylus met.

daltos’ magic is more focused on a versatility of spells than conpletely mastering a select few. as a field magician, he and dallas have to be prepared for anything, from healing, shielding, weather adjustments, repairs, to animal control. he carries around a detailed notebook listing basic spells, sorted by category, effectiveness and strength, all based on his own observations and experiments. he also prepares powerful spells in advance on dust infused scrolls; these are last minute resorts, and are all sealed away in a waterproof bag.

dallas is a large daemon, measuring about 1.2 metres in height. like zylus and griffin, daltos owns leather pads to support dallas landing on his shoulders, and carries around a portable wooden perch.

dallas’ wandering range is about two hundred metres. dallas reckons that he could go further, but that’s his rough estimate.

dallas is marked by a navy bandanna worn around their neck, and leather spats. when traveling, dallas equips a backpack to help carry equipment and items.

dallas is a reserved daemon, in contrast to daltos, who is known to be a chatterbox rivalling parvis. however, dallas does share some of daltos’ traits, such as his stubbornness, acting insufferably smug, and being a playful piece of shit. dallas is fond of stealing items that daltos needs and retreating to a high location until daltos either comes after him or caves.

daltos and dallas are as thick as thieves, they have no secrets between them, and indulge in a lot of joking around. they know it looks unprofessional to onlookers, so dallas tends to adopt an intimidating air when out and about. otherwise, dallas plays the straight man to daltos’ funny man. as for how daltos keeps a straight face when he looks at dallas head on, he says ‘he doesn’t.’

#borderlandscast: his dark materials #long post

[firstdraftpod]

The First Capybara in Space with Stuart Gibbs

First Draft Episode #217: Stuart Gibbs

Stuart Gibbs, New York Times bestselling author of the Spy School series, the FunJungle series, the Moon Base Alpha series, and The Last Musketeer series. His newest series kicked off in 2019 with Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation. The newest FunJungle book, Tyrannosaurus Wrecks, is out March 24, and Spy School Revolution will come out in fall 2020.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

The life path of MIchael Crichton, who studied to become a doctor, was an influence on Stuart in college. After two days into pre-med, though, he decided to focus on biology.

The capybara is the world’s largest rodent

Jennifer Joel is now Co-Head of the Publishing Department at ICM

Jean Claude Van Damme is a Belgian artist and martial artist who made many action films, like Bloodsport (definitely listen to the How Did This Get Made episode - one of the best HDTGM ever), Street Fighter (omg this How Did This Get Made episode - What is a Street Figher?! iconic), Timecop (listen to the How Did This Get Made episode), and The Quest (listen to that How Did This Get Made episode)

Stuart co-wrote the movie See Spot Run with Craig Titley (who wrote the film adaptation of Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the film adaptation of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan)

Lucy Ruth Cummins, writer and illustrator, and executive art director of picture books, middle grade books, and young adult novels for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, and Paula Wiseman books, is responsible for many of Stuart’s incredible covers, including the FunJungle covers

Stuart explains that Quentin Tarantino, writer and director of films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, is given the freedom to wander and explore in his movies, but most screenwriters aren’t.

Daniel Ehrenhaft, author of The Last Dog on Earth, 10 Things to Do Before I Die, and more, Vice President and Editorial Director at Soho Teen, and guitarist in Tiger Beat, recruited Stuart to write The Last Musketeer series.

Moonraker was the first James Bond movie that Stuart ever saw. It changed his world! The story Stuart wrote as a kid about Jimmy Bond, James Bond’s son, was called The Kid with the Golden Water Pistol, a riff on The Man With the Golden Gun

The Mission Impossible films have taken over for James Bond, in a way

Stuart wrote Space Case and the Moon Base Alpha series with the help of his good friend, astronaut Garrett Reisman

Stuart had the instinct that he couldn’t write a book set on Mars, because it would need to have such a scientific basis. His instinct was right because shortly after, Andy Weir published The Martian (listen to Andy Weir’s episode of First Draft here)

  I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call [phone].

Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!

Rate, Review, and Recommend

How do you like the show?

Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you!

Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post!

Thanks again!

Listen now!

#Join host Sarah Enni every Tuesday for a quality hang with your favorite authors.

[mypuppydogtrainer-blog]

Clicker Training: Positve Reinforcement Removes Dog Training Guesswork#DogTraining

Clicker training is a form of positive reinforcement in the field of operant conditioning wherein the clicking sound from a mechanical device marks a desired behavior in animal training. Contrary to popular belief, clicker training is not solely for dog training. This form of procedure is also popular among horses, cats and other pets.

Originally, clicker training was used as a method of obedience training for such unlikely trainees like dolphins in wild animal shows and carrier pigeons for military courier services.

Why clicker training works

The process works via association. If an animal performs a specific task according to the instruction it is given, reward is granted immediately, accompanied always by the clicking sound. The animal soon associates the clicking sound as a means to a promised reward. The longer the training process continues, the easier it is for the animal to follow instructions.

By far, this is the gentlest type of obedience training. Using force and punishment to bolster obedience in animals has always been a controversial issue. This issue is always weighed against traditional training versus the merits of such practice in the long term psychological health of the animal. Negative reinforcement may be in the form of aversive methods, caging, choke collars, force, punishment, sprays, and /or withholding of food or toy. Behavioral training using rewards has proven that animals subjected to this learn new behaviors easier, quicker and with more enthusiasm. They also end up healthier in body and mind.

With dog training, the clicker training method seems to work better than the other forms of positive reinforcement like food, positive attention, praise and voice reinforcements. This is due to the fact that the click pinpoints the “desired” behavior exactly. This eliminates the guesswork on the part of the animal, making the process go faster. Incredibly, animals using this method have learned new things in one to three clicks only, as compared to the weeks and months in conventional non-clicker training.

The clicker training provides a consistent marker in which the dog receives the same information. Also, the sound of the clicker is very distinct, which distracts the dog’s attention from the other stimuli in the environment. Unlike verbal rewards like praise and verbal reinforcements, a clicker conveys no emotion whatsoever; thus the learning process is not marred by accidental slips of approval or disapproval in the voice of the instructor.

This kind of training seems also to work on puppies that are only several weeks old. This means that basic obedience, good manners and fun games can be taught to the animal at an early age. Family members and / or pert owners can be incorporate a bit of “clicking” in their daily routines. A walk to the park, a family picnic, or even watching TV can become a little training session for the animal. This informal mode of training even helps strengthen the bond between the animal and its instructor / pet owner. Clicker training is proving to be the most effective form of obedience instruction so far.

Katia Lorenzen learned about clicker training when her dog was a puppy. And now she is pleased to tell you about the ultimate source of clicker training information: http://ift.tt/2hXVVLr.

from My Puppy Dog Trainer http://ift.tt/2jgfrVL via IFTTT

#IFTTT #My Puppy Dog Trainer

[firstdraftpod]

Ep 193: Kate Spencer

First Draft Episode #193: Kate Spencer

Kate Spencer, comedian, author of Dead Mom’s Club: A Memoir, and co-host of fabulous podcast Forever35 talks about the never-ending quest for confidence, exorcising grief and pain through writing, and how a podcast about serums became a podcast about feelings.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

Amy Poehler, comedian, actress, writer, and director, who is not from the same town Kate is from, but they both grew up “outside Boston”

Early on in childhood Kate fell for The BabySitter’s Club books by Ann M. Martin, and the Sweet Valley Twins series by Francine Pascal, and then she fell for Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Revisiting The Boxcar Children, written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, with her daughter was a special bonding experience

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and other “kids surviving intense circumstances” books are so fascinating, right?!?

Kate’s eight-year-old daughter is plowing through Raina Telgemeier’s graphic novels, including Smile, Sisters, and Guts

The Fear Street books by R.L. Stine, It by Stephen King, and V.C. Andrews’ books like Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind

The film Grease is not actually appropriate for young kids, it turns out

When she moved to New York City, Kate signed up for classes at the UCB Theater and rose through the ranks in the improv community

I basically demand that Kate read Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches by John Hodgman because she went to college in Maine

The two writers I mention who went to Vermont College for Children’s Writing well into their careers are Ally Condie, author of Matched, The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe, and more (listen to her First Draft interview here) and Brendan Reichs, author of Nemesis, Virals, and co-author with Ally Condie of The Darkdeep

On Grief by C.S. Lewis was one of the only books out there for people experiencing loss for a long time

The poet Taije Silverman has written about the grief of caring for her dying mother, and Kate found her work while grieving for her own loss

Kate and her Forever35 podcast co-host Doree Shafrir’s conversation on the By the Book podcast, in which Kate discusses finding Twilight by Stephenie Meyer while grieving and how it inspired her to write

“How I Finally Let Go of Grief for my Dead Mom,” Kate’s piece in Buzzfeed about the pain of letting go of grief

Holly Root, founder of Root Literary, is Kate’s literary agent

Kate’s husband is Anthony King, who has written for TV shows Silicon Valley, Broad City, Search Party, Playing House and more, and he co-wrote Beetlejuice: The Musical which has been nominated for eight Tony Awards, including best musical

Kate is writing in Scrivener, a writing program

Elana K. Arnold, author of Damsel, What Girls Are Made Of, Infandous, A Boy Called Bat, and more (listen to her First Draft interviews here and here) said in her interview with me that she feels like she might be ready to move on from writing about anger and feminism

A Cup of Jo is the website and newsletter run by Joanna Goddard that is packed

Kate wants to be up front about the fact that Vinter’s Daughter sent her their Active Botanicals Serum, she did not buy it herself

The Call Your Girlfriend episode that walked through an OB-GYN appointment

Cat Winters, whose recent book, The Raven’s Tale, called for her to research Poe a ton. In that process she discovered that Edgar Allen Poe’s #1 hater outlived him, then wrote his obituary and his first biography, which has shaped how we think about Poe to this day. (Listen to Cat’s First Draft episode here)

Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!

Rate, Review, and Recommend

How do you like the show?

Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you!

Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post!

Thanks again!

Listen now!

#Join host Sarah Enni every Tuesday for a quality hang with your favorite authors.

[firstdraftpod]

Ep 185: Rhett Miller

First Draft Episode #184: Rhett Miller

Rhett Miller (find him on Twitter and Instagram), musician and writer, is a solo artist as well as lead singer of The Old 97s. His first book for children, No More Poems: A Book in Verse That Just Gets Worse, illustrated by Dan Santat (listen to his First Draft episode here).

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

How Rhett’s given name is Stewart Ransom, sorta like Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (listen to his First Draft podcast episode here)

His childhood biking to the original location of Half-Price Books, now a national chain.

Rhett tore through the Ian Fleming James Bond series as a kid

And he got to meet one of his literary heroes, Kurt Vonnegut, in real life, but the interaction didn’t go quite as planned

As a kid, Rhett’s mother would read aloud to them Helter Skelter, the account of the Charles Manson and Manson Family murders written by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

I discuss how Jon Klassen was on First Draft and discussed becoming a more empathetic, feeling person and artist as he grew older

Stephen King books that had an impact on Rhett include On Writing, 11/22/63, and his book with his son, Owen King, Sleeping Beauties

  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green being one of the books Rhett has read with his kids as a way to talk about difficult subjects, head-on

  How being inspired by writers like Raymond Carver led to a disagreement with his creative writing teacher at Sarah Lawrence

“The Messenger,” Rhett’s most recent solo album

“My Generation,” the song where The Who famously said they’d rather die than get old

Willie Nelson, patron saint of Americana music

Rhett’s buddy Mickey Raphael, harmonica player for Willie Nelson

Other artists giving Americana a moment: Jason Isbell; Chris Stapleton; and Brandi Carlile

“We Could Have Been the Cowboys,” Rhett’s article for Sports Illustrated

Rhett wrote a paper about Gustav Klimpt for his then-girlfriend, who was getting a graduate degree in art history

John Dickson Carr, an early whodunit writer, the inventor of the “locked room” drama

Ben Acker (listen to his First Draft podcast here), who introduced Rhett to First Draft and, thereby, the illustrator of No More Poems, Dan Santat (listen to his First Draft podcast here)

Megan Tingley, editor at Little, Brown

e e cummings, the poet who inspired Rhett’s dedication to non-punctuation

Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent, Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender, or John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!

  Rate, Review, and Recommend

How do you like the show?

Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you!

Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do?

Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post!

Thanks again!

Listen now!

#Join host Sarah Enni every Tuesday for a quality hang with your favorite authors.

[firstdraftpod]

Ep 183: Jon Klassen

First Draft Episode #183: Author and Illustrator Jon Klassen

  Jon Klassen, Caldecott Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the “I Want My Hat Back” series, as well as the illustrator of Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett; The Dark by Lemony Snicket; House Held Up by Trees by Ted Kooser; Cats' Night Out by Caroline Stutson; and many more. Find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr!

Circle, the third and final book in Barnett and Klassen’s “Triangle, Circle, and Square” series, is available now where books are sold!

In the course of our conversation, Jon and I discuss how his early experience as a set designer changed how he thought about picture book audiences, why he felt that painting objects or animals had as much emotional impact as human characters, and how the personal arc of his best-known series, I Want My Hat Back, went from ironic detachment to artistic earnestness.

  Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

The Little Mermaid was one of the Disney movies that made Jon aware of animating as a job

Maurene Goo, author of Somewhere Only We Know, The Way You Make Me Feel, I Believe in a Thing Called Love, and Since You Asked (Listen to Maurene’s first, second, and third episodes of First Draft)

Chris Appelhans, co-director of Wish Dragon, an animated feature scheduled for release on July 26, 2019

Arts Center

One of Jon’s earliest jobs was working on Coraline, the animated film based on the book from Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

An early illustrating gig for Red Cap Cards led Jon to discover his love for drawing animals, including bears wearing hats

Carrie Gifford (co-owner of Red Cap Cards)

Filmmaker and author Ed Wood

The third book in the I Want My Hat Back trilogy was partly inspired by a scene in the Chevy Chase comedy European Vacation

Author Mac Barnett is one of Jon’s most frequent collaborators

Jon is inspired by the classic children’s book series Frog and Toad, and it was one of the first things he and Mac Barnett bonded over

What Can a Citizen Do? By Dave Eggers; illustrated by Shawn Harris

Dave Eggers’ online satire periodical McSweeny’s

826 National, the literacy non-profit founded by Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari

The “things” in Where the Wild Things Are by Marcus Sedgewick came about after Sedgewick almost quit on the project

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd

  Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent, Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender, or John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!

Rate, Review, and Recommend

How do you like the show?

Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you!

Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do?

Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post!

Thanks again!

Listen now!

#Join host Sarah Enni every Tuesday for a quality hang with your favorite authors.